The present invention relates to the new and distinct cultivar of spike speedwell, botanically known as Veronica spicata ‘Purple Illusion’, and hereinafter referred to as the cultivar ‘Purple Illusion’ or the “new plant”. The new plant was cross by the inventor on Jun. 29, 2012 in the hybridizing greenhouses of a wholesale perennial nursery in Zeeland, Mich., USA. The female or seed parent was a proprietary unreleased hybrid known only by the breeder code 08-57-03 (not patented) and the male or pollen parent was ‘Enchanted Indigo’ U.S. Plant Pat. No. 26,603.
The new plant was assigned the breeder code of 12-30-4. ‘Purple Illusion’ has been asexually propagated initially division and later by basal cuttings and shoot tip tissue culture at the same nursery in the greenhouses in Zeeland, Mich., since the summer of 2014 with subsequent asexually propagated plants found to be identical to the original selection with all the same traits as the original seedling.